There are many different applications for the use of elongated sheets or strips of material that need to be custom-cut on site.
One example is hair colouring strips. During the hair colouring process a professional colourist will cut strips of aluminium foil, apply a hair dye to a bunch of hair strands, and wrap the foil around the coloured strands to encapsulate the dye while it sets into the hair and dries.
This process has certain disadvantages. Foil has essentially no thermal insulation value, and therefore cannot keep the colouring dye warm during the colouring process, which affects the permanence of the colouring. In the preferred embodiment a thin (5 mil) polystyrene foam strip is used in place of foil for hair colouring purposes. The wrapped polystyrene creates thermal conditions that are better for colouring than foil, and retains moisture for consistency of colouring.
Other uses for custom-cut strips from a ribbon include (without limitation) drywall tape, which must be cut to size to cover a joint between adjacent sheets of drywall; gift wrapping applications such as decorative ribbons; wallpaper borders; double-sided tape; and medical materials such as bandages.
For many such applications, one or both ends of a strip may need to be mitred, i.e. cut at an oblique angle. In some cases, for example when cutting drywall tape, the precision of the mitre is an important factor toward getting good results. Presently such strips are cut using scissors or a utility knife, which does not lend itself to cutting at precise angles and can lead to gaps or thickness overages in some applications.
It would accordingly be beneficial to provide a ribbon cutter capable of quickly and easily cutting mitred ends having specific and varying angles, with a high degree of precision.